A large part of Russia has been hit by a TV blackout following a serious malfunction on the Express-MD1 satellite.
Vedomosti reports that the satellite, which has been in orbit since 2009, stopped broadcasting the channels First Channel, Rossiya 1, Kultura and Channel Five in the Central European part of Russia and Urals, home to around 117 million people.
Express-MD1, which now appears unrecoverable, developed faults a while ago and so the Russian Television and Broadcasting Network (RTRS) reserved about 80% of its capacity on satellites belonging to other companies.
As a result, the blackout was short lived for three of the channels, with 90% of the population living in its coverage area being able to receive First Channel and Rossiya 1 within an hour.
Channel Five has in large part also been restored, though there is still a problem with Kultura.
